


Almost Mine

by OnstageSport



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theatre, M/M, Modern Era, Rating for two (2) curse words, Some Cariani criticism sorry not sorry, Using the Marriott Newsies casting AKA Jojo and Buttons are girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-07 04:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13426506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnstageSport/pseuds/OnstageSport
Summary: Art imitates life as Jack and Davey fall for each other over and over and over during rehearsals for their high school production ofAlmost, Maine.





	1. Prologue

“Okay guys!” Katherine chirped, indicating the start of the rehearsal. “As you all know, today’s the first day off book…” She smiled around at the seven cast members, far too perky for the sentiment. Race and Mush looked at each other with comically over-exaggerated fear in their eyes. “Don’t worry, Specs will be on-book if you should _happen_ to have to call for line.”

The edge to her voice indicated that God should help whoever dared to call for line, but the effect was undermined by her assistant stage manager giving them all a kindly wave and a wide, encouraging smile. 

“Skittery wants me to remind you to send him your bios A.S.A.P,” Katherine reminded as she took her seat beside Specs. She looked over to Medda, their director, to see if there were any more announcements that needed to be made before they began. With no further reminders, they were ready to begin. “Okay, Race and JoJo—we need both of you onstage for the prologue. Davey and Buttons—be ready.”

Everyone except for Race and JoJo cleared out of the playing space and sat in the front few rows of the theater. They all kept their scripts in hand, wanting the comfort for as long as humanly possible.

“Okay, quiet off,” Katherine commanded. The little talking and moving about that had been occurring immediately silenced and the actors buried themselves in their scripts for some last-minute studying. “Announcement, music music music, and...lights up.”


	2. Chapter 1

“Okay, so that brings us to a five minute break,” Katherine announced at the end of the final scene of the first act.

“Thank you five,” the cast chorused back to her. They began to shuffle among the seats, rummaging through their things.

They had made it through the entire first act with minimal disruptions: transitions between scenes were a little sloppy since they didn’t have their crew yet, there were some scenes where Medda wanted to restage a moment now that she could see it without the scripts, there were a handful of line flubs that caused standstills, but mostly it was just that without the aid of their paper crutches, the actors had succumbed to the awkwardness of the scripted kisses and dissolved into laughter before recollecting themselves and pushing through.

“Be back at 3:32,” Katherine called as some of them headed out the door.

“Thank you 3:32.”

Davey was one of the only ones who didn’t head out the door.

“Ain’t you taking a break?” teased Jack as he got off the stage, leaning over the seat in front of Davey and causing him to look up from his script in surprise.

“I was only in one scene in the first act,” Davey laughed. “That _was_ my break.”

He ducked his head back to the text, reviewing words that he had thought he knew by heart. But he had called line in his first scene—which he really _shouldn’t_ have since his lines were short and concise and mostly reactionary—so he wanted to be prepared for his next one.

“Guess act two’s _my_ break then, huh?” Jack teased, his eyes glinting as he smiled at Davey. Davey gave him a half-hearted smile. Jack frowned and confiscated the script.

“You’re taking a break,” he instructed. He held up the script to be sure Davey understood what he meant when he said, “This can wait.” Then he dropped the binder onto the next seat with an unceremonial _thud_. Jack then took Davey’s hands in his own and pulled him to his feet. “C’mon. We’re taking a walk. It’ll be good for you.”

He started to pull Davey out of the audience and towards the door. 

“You have four minutes,” Katherine called after them.

“We’ll be back,” Jack assured her.

“You better be. Yours is the first scene.”

Jack and the slightly less enthusiastic Davey exited the theater into the lobby. They wandered aimlessly, Davey constantly checking the clock on his phone to be sure they would return in time.

“Your folks coming to see the show?” Jack asked suddenly.

“You know they are,” Davey laughed. “They’ve been to every one of my shows. Every one of yours, too.”

“And...do they know?” Jack asked, only allowing himself to look at Davey out of the corner of his eye.

Davey furrowed his eyebrows at Jack.

“About?” he prompted without thinking. Jack turned his full attention to Davey, and Davey realized that Jack had been talking about their scene. Did his parents know about their scene. “Oh. No, I haven’t told them about that one yet. But it’s not really the _worst_ thing I do in the show so…” He shrugged, unsure if that was the answer Jack was looking for.

Jack’s ambivalent nod and soft “Hm” clarified nothing.

“I just meant—I didn’t mean ‘worst’ as in bad,” Davey immediately backtracked. “I meant ‘worst’ as in shocking. I mean, Smalls and I _strip_ in the last scene, so... That’s more shocking than anything else.”

Jack nodded again, considering that.

“Yeah. At least you’ll be cool while the rest of us suffer in our winter coats,” he snorted. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Kath’ll kill us if we don’t get back in there now.”

Davey saw that it was 3:31, and with the seconds counting down, who knew how long they truly had to get back? So they cut their conversation short and headed back.


	3. Chapter 2

It was time for their scene. The only scene with two men in it. The only gay scene in the entire show. No pressure or anything.

Davey sat opposite Jack on two sturdy rehearsal blocks that were representative of camping chairs that “were on their way,” trying to look at least somewhat relaxed and casual—his and Jack’s characters had been friends for years and were hanging out with each other in a potato field after individually disastrous dates. The easy-going nature of the scene was incredibly difficult to achieve, at least for Davey considering the brief conversation he and Jack had had, the overall uncomfortable nature of the block, and the fact that he was acutely aware of the lack of script in his hand. 

“Okay, music music music, and lights up,” Katherine called out to them without looking up from her script.

Davey’s focus snapped back to Jack, who seemed to be in the zone already. He seemed so at ease here, in spite of everything. It was almost like he was in his element as soon as the lights hit him. It was only slightly infuriating as Davey pulled his focus back to the scene.

After that, everything went pretty well even though Davey’s studying of the scene had been interrupted. All of his complaints about _his_ date were flowing, practically without him even having to think about them. Every beat hit its mark. It was going...almost suspiciously smoothly. 

Then they reached Jack’s monologue.

Jack’s character had this monologue confessing, in the most heterosexual of terms, his feelings for Davey’s character, that he was the only thing that made sense in his life. Davey listened raptly, staring in what he hoped was slight confusion as he himself got lost in Jack’s speech.

Maybe it was because he didn’t have the script anymore, but he felt like he was really hearing the words for the first time. He could hear all these nuances that Jack brought to it, these flavors of insecurity and frustration that Davey had somehow missed when he had the text in front of him.

Davey stared at him a little longer, letting the speech ruminate for a few more moments, then cleared his throat and stood up, wiping his hands on the front of his jeans, trying to seem as uncomfortable by the confession as humanly possible.

“Well,” Davey huffed with a nod. “I’m gonna head.”

He started off towards the stage left exit. Something in him had instilled him with a greater sense of urgency and he couldn’t pinpoint the source of it. Jack kept calling him back, delaying his exit, his voice growing more and more desperate each time. Davey almost felt bad that he was scripted to try to leave.

Suddenly, Jack crumpled to the ground, a physical representation of falling in love. Davey thought it was a little stupid, that of all the ways the show it, the playwright had chosen that way. It was a little ridiculous and could very easily stray into absurdity. 

As such, one of Medda’s first notes to them when working on the scene had been that “though these scenes are funny, these situations are not funny to the characters. You have these two men making this huge discovery about themselves and neither of them are that sure about what it will mean for them.”

At that, Davey and Jack had cautiously glanced at each other, sharing a discreet smile.

So, despite the laughter erupting from the audience, Davey managed to stay serious as he rushed to his fallen friend’s side.

“Whoa! Chad! You okay?” he asked as he helped Jack back onto his feet.

Now, without the script to act as a buffer between them, Davey could feel the heat radiating off Jack’s skin. With this, he suddenly realized that this was the first time they touched in the entire scene. Davey’s stomach knotted.

“What was that?” he asked, keeping his arm around Jack to stabilize him. Jack grabbed onto Davey’s shoulder, something he had never done when he had a script in his hand. There was a howl of laughter from the audience, but Davey hardly heard them over the blood rushing in his ears. “You ok—” His voice sounded hoarse and strangled so he cleared his throat.

“Quiet off,” Katherine scolded the still-laughing cast members, namely Race and Smalls though JoJo’s and Buttons’ snickers could be heard much more quietly.

“You okay?” Davey asked Jack. “What just happened there?”

He was sure that they were far too close, still wrapped in each other’s embrace with their faces barely six inches apart (No wonder the rest of the cast were laughing, they must look like the cover of the lamest Fabio novel ever written) but he couldn’t think of a way to naturally back away without making it into a bit.

There was a long pause as Jack stared at Davey and Davey stared at Jack. Davey’s eyes went wide and his blood ran cold as he mentally scanned through the script. Was it his line? Did he miss his cue?

Before he had the chance to call for line, Jack did. His voice was gruff and breathy and he didn’t break the scene to ask since he maintained eye contact with Davey as he said it. Davey swallowed hard, trying to alleviate his dry mouth.

“I think I just...” Specs prompted emotionlessly.

“I think I just...fell in love with you there, Randy,” Jack repeated, almost laughing at himself in disbelief.

Davey wasn’t sure how Jack had done it, but he felt that line strike him right in his heart. He dropped his hands from Jack in shock. It was a natural reaction _and_ it wasn’t a bit. In shock, he took a step back, away from Jack. When Jack made to follow, taking a step towards him, he fell again, slamming to the floor.

Davey knelt by Jack’s side, helping him up again only to have Jack collapse into him this time. He continued to fall every time Davey helped him up until Davey’s character had had enough and it came time for his monologue.

He started small, confused by and scared of what Chad had told him. Slowly, it grew louder and bigger, more angry by the fact that he would want to ruin their friendship, their perfectly good friendship, by saying something that he could never take back. He wanted to rein himself back by the time he felt himself getting too riled up by the prospect, but he couldn’t.

He wasn’t one for method acting, he thought it was detrimental to the actor’s health and well-being, but when he was in a scene opposite his actual best friend, ranting about how even the strongest of friendships can be ruined at the drop of a hat, by feelings that one wasn’t supposed to have for the other, it was difficult to separate himself from it.

At the end of his rant, he stalked towards the stage right exit. He took a deep breath and turned around again, like he had twice during his monologue. Instead of tearing into Jack again, he took one look at him, still on the floor, and crumpled, mimicking Jack’s fall from before.

There was a long moment, during which Jack and Davey just stared at each other in awe of this new discovery, before Katherine prompted the next scene change.

Davey was grateful for the two scenes between his scene with Jack and his next one. He needed some time to calm down and think over everything that he had felt during that scene. It had been too much. It had especially been too much when one considered that they were just acting.

No matter how genuine it might have sounded, or looked, or felt, Jack wasn’t in love with him. And that was fine. Like he said in the scene, any additional feelings would just make their friendship that _did_ make sense...not make sense.


	4. Chapter 3

“We survived off-book day with only a couple of casualties!” Katherine cheered at the end of the rehearsal. She then turned to Medda for any notes while Specs went around to return the props to the table.

Medda gave her quick notes—primarily about timing, projection, diction, or to work the kisses, but occasionally there was a specific note.

“Davey, you can’t know you’re in love with him,” was one such specific note. Davey felt his face heat up as the rest of his castmates either wolf-whistled or simply laughed at the blatant statement. “You’re playing the result before he even falls!”

Davey nodded and took down the note. Medda continued with the remaining few notes that she had and finished off by wishing them well and thanking them for all of their hard work.

“See you all tomorrow, and don’t forget your bios!” Katherine reminded them all one last time as they all gathered their things together.

Even though Jack was ready to go before Davey was, he still hung around to wait for him so they could leave together.

“You didn’t have to wait, you know,” Davey told him.

Jack just shrugged and they kept walking.

“So,” Jack sang after several seconds. “When were you in love with me?”

“Apparently that whole scene, if the laughter was anything to go by,” Davey quipped back. Jack laughed humorlessly. “But what Medda was talking about? Um, apparently what I thought was confusion actually reads as ‘totally smitten.’ You didn’t notice?”

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets almost bashfully.

“I wasn’t really looking at you,” he admitted. Before Davey could have the chance to ask for his reason, or worse, get offended somehow, he continued. “Look, I’m not 100% on that monologue and if I were to keep on looking at you, I would _definitely_ lose my place.”

Davey just blinked at him, flattered by the thought that he was somehow disarming enough to make Jack forget his lines. Then he remembered that this was Jack he was talking to, so that was almost definitely a lie.

“Sure,” he laughed, shaking his head. It had been nice to entertain the thought, however fleeting it may have been.

“No, sure,” Jack repeated more insistently. He grabbed Davey by the upper arm to make him stop walking for a minute. “The only time I messed up at all tonight was that ‘fell in love’ line. You know why?”

“No, why?” Davey asked, humoring him. 

Jack’s usual confidence melted away to something a little more vulnerable, something Davey had only ever seen—or thought he had seen—onstage. Jack moved a little bit closer to him, as though about to divulge a secret that was meant only for Davey’s ears, but then he thought better of it and moved back again.

“I should go. See you tomorrow, Davey…”

“Right. See you tomorrow, then.” Davey absolutely deflated as he watched Jack go. He knew better than to mistake onstage chemistry for off-stage interest, and yet... 

Davey sighed and started walking, criticizing himself for letting himself fall.


	5. Chapter 4

Davey knew that his family always came to the second night of performances because “all the bugs would be worked out,” which soothed his nerves about opening night. He was still just as anxious as anyone else, but at least he didn’t have to worry about what his parents were going to say.

The performance on opening night had gone as smoothly as expected—there were some small mishaps that only those involved in the show would notice.

By the next show, everyone had completely gotten over their jitters, just as the Jacobs theorized, but Davey’s were just setting in.

“Oh, calm down, would you?” Jack scoffed as he tried to apply his own eyeliner. “This ain’t even the most stressful show you’ve done for your folks. Remember last year when your sister was the understudy Audrey?”

Davey shot him a glare that told Jack that he most certainly _did_ remember, but would prefer not to discuss it.

“You talking about _Little Shop of Incest_?” Race chimed in from across the room, snickering. Davey transferred his dirty look to Race.

“Go have Buttons fix your face,” Jack blew him off. “You’re pink.”

Race flipped him off and began searching for a wipe to clean off his makeup. Jack returned the gesture before turning back to Davey and slinging his arm over Davey’s shoulders.

“You’re gonna do great!” he promised with a big smile. “Don’t worry about anything. You’ll be great.”

Davey nodded absently. He knew Jack was probably right, but the idea of having his parents see the show never got any easier.

-

Luckily, his family seemed to like it. Immediately when it was over, both Jack and Davey were ambushed by the entire Jacobs clan, wrapped in their tight embraces.

“You should have warned us,” Sarah teased when she released her brother. Davey froze as he stared at her. She didn’t seem to notice his absolute horror because she continued casually. “I didn’t need to see my brother getting down to his boxers.”

Davey could feel all of the anxiety roll off his shoulders. Oh, good. It was just that.

“Hey, I was in long johns,” he shrugged. “So I was fully covered.”

Les, who had been focused on talking to Jack, turned to Davey, muscling in before their parents got to him. He gave Davey a very firm hug around his waist before pulling back and asking a very blunt question.

“Why didn’t you kiss Jack?” 

Behind the child, Jack held up his hands to show that he had had no influence in that question. Davey gawked at Les before looking to the rest of his family, unsure what to say. 

“You kissed Buttons, _and_ you kissed Smalls.” Les frowned, remembering the scene. “You kissed Smalls a _lot_. So why didn’t you kiss Jack?”

Davey spared a glance towards Jack, who was looking just as awkward as he was before kneeling down to Les’s level.

“It wasn’t in the script,” he explained casually. “Plus, other people didn’t kiss: Race and Buttons didn’t kiss, and Crutchie and JoJo didn’t kiss—”

“Yeah, but _they_ were all breaking up!” Les pointed out. 

Davey frowned at Les—when did this kid get so observant, and why was he using his sudden powers for evil? He sighed, not knowing what else to say to him except for that it just wasn’t in the script.

“That’s stupid,” Les decided.

“I’ll tell Miss Medda you said so,” Davey laughed and stood up, rumpling his hair. Suddenly going wide-eyed, Les didn’t bring it up again.

-

Closing night brought an emotional speech from Medda before the performance, and promises not to cry until the after party.

As the last chance to perform the show, everyone put 110% into each of their scenes.

“This is such a great audience, too!” Davey had beamed to Crutchie in the dressing room after he was done with his one scene in the first act. “They are reacting to _everything_!”

That fact only made him a little nervous about his and Jack’s scene.

-

The audience seemed to find the first half of the scene, griping about their bad dates, very relatable and both Jack and Davey garnered sympathy. However, they had gone silent after Jack’s monologue. Davey wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. Then there was an audible groan when Jack fell to the ground the first time, so they hadn't lost the audience entirely.

“Whoa! Chad!” Davey exclaimed as he rushed to Jack’s side. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jack nodded, furrowing his brow as he put two and two together.

Davey helped him to his feet, hoisting him up by his armpits. Medda had liked how close they ended up when they rehearsed it off-book for the first time and told them to “keep all of it.” So, there they were, still looking like the worst winter-themed romance novel.

“I think I just...fell in love with you there, Randy,” Jack confessed, his voice breathy, disbelieving, and, if Davey didn’t know better, scared. _God, Jack was such a good actor._

The audience reaction to this revelation was mixed—some gasps, a couple of “awws,” but mostly laughter.

Davey let go of Jack and stepped away, staring at him in distrusting awe. Then, Jack crumpled to the ground again. And again, Davey helped him to his feet, less gently this time, only for Jack to fall again.

Davey protested as Jack went limp against him, threatening to fall once more.

This time, however, Jack didn’t just crumple to the floor like had been rehearsed. No, he fell into Davey. And he didn’t just fall into Davey, he managed to smash their mouths together on his way down. Once their mouths had separated, he fell backwards onto his back.

Davey stared at Jack as he backed away from him, mouth agape and his eyes as wide as saucers. The blood rushing around in his head drowned out the laughter of the audience. What was he supposed to do now? 

_The show must go on,_ he reminded himself. If only he could remember his line.

“What was that?!” was what came out of his mouth instead.

Luckily, Jack took the initiative and reworked his following line so it made sense with the improvised one, saving the scene from a long, awkward pause.

“I couldn’t help it! It just kinda came over me!” he insisted, sitting up. “I’ve fallen in love with you here!”

And they were back on track. Davey delivered his monologue, maybe with more ferocity than strictly necessary but what was he _supposed_ to do when Jack had decided to add an unrehearsed kiss in front of a live audience?

He turned to exit and he thought about how easy it would be to just keep going. But that wasn’t the story that he was supposed to tell. So he turned around, like he was scripted. Jack was on his feet now, another unscripted action— _because apparently now it was open season on changing the staging!_ — and staring at Davey with remorse.

Davey stared at him for a beat, drinking him in completely. He wanted to believe that Jack was truly sorry about his first improvisation, but he knew how good an actor Jack was. That surely couldn’t be the case.

“Randy,” Jack managed weakly.

Davey wasn’t sure how they timed it so perfectly, and thankfully it was the last show because he was fairly certain that it would never happen again. They both fell to the floor at the exact same time.

-

After they got offstage, Davey waited the allotted three seconds for Blink to turn his mic off, then an extra ten just to be safe, before he confronted Jack on the way to the dressing room.

“What was that?” he demanded, keeping his face and tone as cold as he could manage.

“What was what?” Jack asked casually though he refused to look at Davey.

“You know what,” Davey spat. He grabbed Jack by the shoulder and pushed him against the wall outside the dressing room, staring him down. “That...that _stunt_ out there! Why’d you do that?”

Jack shrank a little under Davey’s gaze. He swallowed hard and averted his eyes again.

“I’m sorry,” he half-heartedly apologized. “Thought it would be more dynamic or-”

“Bullshit,” Davey snapped, his voice breaking. Hopefully Jack would ignore that. “Tell me why you kissed me.”

“Okay, I was thinking about what Les had said and-”

“Do not blame my _ten year old brother_ for your decisions, Jack.” This interrogation was not going as well as he had planned. “What’s the real reason?”

Jack was silent for several seconds. Davey prompted him again. He remained silent, thinking.

“Jack, I have to go change soon, so you better tell me right n-”

“I love you, okay?”

Davey blanched, blinking at Jack in absolute confusion. 

“What?” he rasped.

“I’ve fallen in love with you, Davey,” Jack tried to laugh. “And I know it’s dumb, but I’ve been falling in love with you over and over and over again. Every night for two months. And I don’t know why I decided that I had to kiss you, but I guess I figured...you know ‘now or never, right?’ Because I know that to you it was just a scene. This is all just a show. But out there, for me? That was real.”

Davey wanted to be mad at him. He really, truly did. But that little speech softened him and made it nearly impossible to be upset with Jack. And he hated that he was so easily swayed.

“Jack, I-” He had no idea how to respond to that.

At that moment, they saw Race and Buttons coming down the hall, giving each other a high-five.

“You’ve got to go get dressed,” Jack nodded, filling in the blanks.

“Oh. Right,” Davey nodded absently. He had to go get dressed. Now there was only one scene before his next appearance.

They made their way to the dressing room in awkward silence, Davey barreling onwards several paces before a deflated Jack.

-

The show was over and everyone was overflowing with adrenaline as they bounded off the stage to greet the audience, Race and Smalls leading the charge.

“Jack!” Davey called out, rushing to grab Jack’s arm in case his voice hadn’t caught his attention.

“Yeah?” Jack asked warily.

Davey glanced around and pulled Jack to a backstage corner so they would have a semblance of privacy. There was a brief pause before he spoke again, almost afraid to say it aloud.

“Yeah, Dave?” Jack prompted again.

Davey took a deep breath and began, his words spewing forth as fast as possible.

“Everything you said back there,” he indicated down the hallway. “All of that is exactly the same for me. I mean, I kind of figured out that I love you when Medda called me out for it in front of everybody. But I think I sort of knew before...way before. And then getting to be in a scene with you, and have you tell me—or I mean, Randy—all of those great things, putting into words what I had never been able to…” He took a deep breath. “I think I fell a little more in love with you every single time you ran that monologue.”

Jack smiled at Davey, half in disbelief and half elated.

“ _However,_ ” Davey continued before Jack had the opportunity to get too excited. “Adding in a kiss completely unrehearsed and without telling me about it beforehand? Completely unprofessional.”

Jack barked out a laugh. Leave it to Davey to worry about his professionalism after confessing his love.

“Don’t do it again,” Davey reprimanded.

“What if I let you know first?” Jack countered as they approached the dressing room door.

Davey considered it and then nodded. “That would be allowed, yes.”

“Good, because I really wanna kiss you again,” Jack smiled.

He leaned in to kiss Jack and, as their lips slotted together, he felt his heart lift a little and all of his hesitations fade away. His eyes fluttered shut as he allowed himself to give in to the sensation: It was warm, comfortable, and somehow familiar.

It made sense.


	6. Epilogue

As Specs started to clear away the props, getting a head start for strike, he caught sight of the two boys kissing out of the corner of his eye. He stared at them for a moment, wondering if they were going to notice him and stop.

They didn’t.

So, he wolf-whistled at them, and they sprang apart. In the darkness, it was hard to tell, but he was fairly sure that at least one of them was blushing furiously.

“I’m only invisible to the audience, dipshits,” Specs laughed at them before continuing on his way to the prop closet.


	7. BONUS CONTENT: That's My Sister

Davey used his free study hall to highlight his lines, wanting to come in to the next rehearsal as prepared as possible.

“So, David,” Race nodded curtly as he slid into the desk beside Davey. 

Davey looked up in surprise at the formality. Race never called him by his full name so that was the first sign that something was seriously wrong. Davey closed his highlighter and fixed Race with a look of concern.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. He was prepared to help Race in any _legal_ way that he could.

“See, I was reading my script last night and I noticed something _real_ interesting,” Race said slowly.

Davey somehow got the sense that he was being accused of something he didn’t know about yet.

“Yeah? What was that?” he asked suspiciously.

Race folded his hands under his chin, rested his head on the bridge of his interlocked fingers, and fixed Davey with an ice-cold gaze. Whatever he had noticed didn’t seem to bode well for Davey.

“That you kiss my sister six times.”

Davey stiffened slightly, picking up his highlighter again and turning it between his fingers, his eyes focused on the bright pink marker. He was unsure of why he was under attack for Medda’s casting decision, but he certainly wanted it to stop.

“Oh,” he replied, refusing to look at Race. “I didn’t count.”

Race “hmmph”ed haughtily in response before falling silent. Another sign of how serious this issue was to Race--the boy who couldn’t keep his mouth shut for more than two minutes had gone mute.

“Is...Don’t take this the wrong way, but is there a reason you’re angry with _me_ about this?” Davey asked.

Race scoffed at him and rolled his eyes.

“I ain’t angry,” he insisted. “That’s just my sister is all and I don’t want you doing anything funny with her.” 

Davey gawked at Race, with his mouth hanging slightly open.

“...Are you serious right now?” he asked, unable to tell if Race was joking behind his practiced poker face.

“What? If somebody had to kiss your sister, you’d be a little protective too.”

Davey just blinked at Race in utter disbelief.

“Race,” he stated flatly. “People _have_ had to kiss my sister. _You_ had to kiss my sister.” He allowed a few moments to pass so that Race could recall that. “And I never found it necessary to warn _you_ not to try anything funny with her.”

“Which was a mistake,” Race pointed out.

Before he could elaborate on what sort of ‘funny business’ he and Sarah had gotten up to, Davey cut him off by insisting that he “ _really_ didn’t want to hear about it.” Race held his hands up in self defense.

“Look,” Race concluded. “I’m just saying that if you _do_ try anything--”

“Then she’ll beat me up long before you get the chance to,” Davey reminded him.

Race closed his mouth and nodded. That was more true any threat he could have offered. After a long silence, Race patted Davey on the shoulder, gave him a curt nod.

“Good talk,” he said, rising. “And remember.” He pointed two fingers at his own eyes and then at Davey. “I’ll be watching you.”

Davey shook his head as Race walked away from him and silently returned to highlighting his script.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This doesn't really add anything to or take anything away from the rest of the fic, but I really enjoyed it and you can pry the fact that Race and Smalls are siblings from my cold dead hands


End file.
